Show SAD BAD AND H HUMOROUS CAMPAIGN PRELUDES the real presidential campaign has not begun yet but already it casts its shadows the disclosure made in the teapot dome investigation are a very very sad prelude to the coming campaign and will no doubt have an influence not only upon the decisions of the national conventions but also upon the vote to be cast in the presidential election next december the only sa lavation atlon tor for any party intending to enter the big race will be to prove conclusively that not the party but bat members of the party broke the trust placed into them that not the party Is or was corrupt but only a few unworthy members of the party yet in addition to the sad pro pre ludes there are also some funny 1 ones and one of the funniest is the war now waging between former secretary of the treasury W G dodoo and senator james AJames reed of both democrats and both avowed candidates for the presidential ident ial nomination the way these two candidates tight fight each other smacks somewhat like comedy and is not just the most dignified way the last word in this war among brothers was spoken by senator reed who in a speech in peoria illinois mercilessly flayed clayed those democratic officials high and low meaning of course mr air mcadoo who after the war resigned their jobs with the government to accept tees fees from private interests which were either fighting the government or wanting favors from it senator reed said it was no use trying to i fool the public with the pretense such men sold their legal talents when everybody knows what they sold was their influence and the confidential information about the government which they bad obtained while in public service and on the public payroll in part senator reed said j on the heels of the great war came another sinister development there was an epidemic of money madness it was discovered that great profits could be realized by pressing claims against the government immediately there was a flood of resignations by every sort of government employee from dep apartment part ment clerks to cabinet officers 1 they had lived upon the bounty of their country they were possessed of inside information or they had gained great influence through the public honors conferred upon them they now sought to enrich themselves in employing that influence and knowledge against the government whose bounty they had accepted accordingly they went into the open market to sell that information and that influence to those who were contending against the government most of them disguised their transactions under the term legal services they expected to escape detection and even now have the effrontery fron tery to pretend their action was ethical because it was performed in the capacity of attorneys at law an honorable lawyer possessing I 1 knowledge of a clients business while employed by him as a lawyer or as an individual will never use ithac that knowledge against his former client or employer an honorable employee quitting the service of his bis master will not use against the master the knowledge he acquired while under his pay indeed the books are full of cases where former em til have been enjoined from such a course neither will an honorable man sell the influence he gained from holding office under the government to those who have controversies with the government nor will be sell that influence in any manner so as to embarrass the government he once served A plan la Is formed to despoil the united states of its oil reserves one of the conspirators E L doheny I 1 comes to washington he was in search of influence and was willing to expend large sums of money to exert influence upon the public servants I 1 although there are tens of thousands of lawyers of distinction and ability in the united states and hundreds of practitioners in washington doheny employed within a short period five cabinet or ex cab inet officers 1 I do not say that these men were corrupt I 1 do not say they were not employed for their legal ability formell he bargained and hired former secretary of the interior franklin K X lane at a year the bargain was made while lane was in the cabinet he employed former attorney general gregory after he had left the cabinet and another great oil company hired gregorys gregoras Gre gorys former partner he employed former secretary of the interior fall while fall was a member of the cabinet hei employed former secretary of the treasurer mcadoo shortly after he left the cabinet and paid for his services in washington he removed him from that field of endeavor when the democratic administration was succeeded by the republican administration I 1 that is Do benys henys own testimony and it remains doheny was buying influence not legal talent he even descended to the hiring of 0 george creel erstwhile press censor ot of the democratic administration and he be hired him for tho the express purpose se of 0 endeavoring to have influence on josephus daniels while the latter was secretary of the navy what a spectacle it is that the s shrewdness and cunning of doheny made it possible to go thus out in se search arch of influence and apparently find cabinet officers and ex cabinet officers cers who took his money without a qualm of conscience or ignorant that doheny was buying influence |